Only When I Laugh

Only When I Laugh

1979 - United Kingdom

Set in an NHS hospital where the same three seemingly permanent patients, all congenital hypochondriacs, are forever playing a game of one-upmanship with each other, much to the irritation of house surgeon Dr Gordon Thorpe, played by the excellent Richard Wilson. 

James Bolam, in his first comedy since Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads plays Roy Figgis, a lorry driver who has an opinion on most things be it politics, social issues or medicine, all of which he is a self-confessed expert on. One gets the idea that he'd rather talk than work and in the confines of a small hospital ward he is in his element. He delights mostly in winding up the staff and patients, in particular the hapless and effete Norman Binns (Christopher Strauli), upper-class snob Archie Glover (Peter Bowles) and the ward orderly Gupte (Derrick Branche). 

The series was written by Eric Chappell who was following on from the hugely popular Rising Damp. Once again Chappell benefitted from an excellent ensemble cast who relished every line of his witty, sparkling script and the series was a huge ratings success for ITV running for four series from 1979 to 1982. C4 repeated the series in 1994 to great viewer reception and it is available, season by season or in its entirety, on DVD.

Published on January 16th, 2019. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Murder by the Book

When Agatha Christie decides to kill off her most famous and long-running character, she has an unexpected visitor - none other than the great detective himself - Hercule Poirot

Also starring Richard Wilson

The Bounder

Peter Bowles and George Cole in a comedy about an ex-convict who, upon release from prison for fraud, goes to live with his sister and brother-in-law and begins immediately to disrupt their happy marriage

Also starring Peter Bowles

Dick Turpin

Turpin, cheated out of his wealth while on duty in Flanders, decides to regain his money using his own, not so lawful methods.

Also released in 1979

One Foot In The Grave

The exploits of a pensioner and his long-suffering wife in their battle against the trials of modern life.

Also tagged Richard Wilson

Benson TV series

This spin-off of the Susan Harris-created farce Soap sent the Tate family's insolent African-American butler Benson to the mansion of Jessica Tate's bumbling cousin, Governor James Gatling. In other words, Benson went from one dysfunctional family to another.

Also released in 1979

Room at the Bottom

From the corridors of power to the passages frequented by lower personnel. It's them against us. And both are guaranteed laughs

Also starring Richard Wilson

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads

A programme about the past, the future and the tension and changing relationship between The Likely Lads; the upwardly mobile Bob Ferris and Terry Collier, who spends most of his time acting as an anchor to Bob’s aspiration.

Also tagged The Likely Lads

Danger UXB

Tense drama about a bomb disposal division of the Army in war torn London during the 1940s.

Also released in 1979

The Likely Lads

A Sharply scripted comedy of character and wryly observed social change both series held a perceptively laughter gilded mirror to the changing face of the work-deprived industrial North East and of British society during the middle nineteen-sixties and early seventies.

Also tagged The Likely Lads